Detecting deception in suspects: Verbal cues as a function of interview strategy

• Research on deception has consistently shown that people are poor at detecting deception during interviews. Research on innocent and guilty suspects’ strategies and strategic use of evidence during interviews has shown that innocent suspects volunteer more information and provide even potentially incriminating details. This experiment examined verbal differences between innocent and guilty mock suspects (N = 96) as a function of veracity and interview style (Free recall, Probes, or Free recall plus Probes). Innocent (vs. guilty) suspects provided more crime-relevant information, and their statements were less likely to contradict the evidence, showing that statement-evidence inconsistency was a cue to deception. This cue to deception was more pronounced when the interview contained probes. Lie-catchers (N = 192) obtained an accuracy rate higher than chance (61.5%) for detecting deceptive denials. Implications for further research on verbal cues to deception are discussed.

Nyckelord

deception

interviewing to detect deception

verbal cues

interviewing strategies

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